Resources (AQA A Level Geography)
Revision Note
Classifying Resources
Resource security refers to the ability of a country to safeguard a reliable and sustainable flow of resources to maintain the living standards of the population
A resource is something to which human society attaches value, due to its usefulness
Resources can be classified according to common characteristics:
Natural or human
Renewable or non-renewable
Recyclable or non-recyclable
Biotic or abiotic
Stock resources are finite and non-renewable
E.g. coal, oil, gas, gold, copper, uranium
Flow resources are renewed within short timescales either through physical systems or biotic reproduction
E.g. solar, wind, forests, fish stocks
Critical flow resources, such as forests and fish stocks, require careful management to ensure continuous availability
Further classification of stock resources can be made
Resources are an estimate of the quantity of all deposits of a valued mineral or energy source, including those that are discovered, undiscovered or not viable
Reserves are those parts of the ‘resources’ that can be economically, technically and legally extracted
A McKelvey box illustrates an international scale for evaluating stock resources
Explanation of McKelvey Classification of Stock Resources
| Proven | Probable | Possible | Possible or hypothetical and conditional reserves |
---|---|---|---|---|
Definition | Quantity and quality of resources estimated with a high level of confidence. Viewed as being economically viable | Quantity and quality of resources estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow further evaluation of their economic viability | Quantity and quality of resources estimated based on limited evidence. There may be issues regarding depth, continuity and access | Largely undiscovered and confidence in existence is low. Based on geological knowledge of similar situations where resources have already been discovered |
Quantity and quality of resource | Size is known accurately | Size partly measured and measurements used to estimate the extent | Identified but estimated and not measured | They are thought to exist but haven’t been sampled |
Degree of mineral sampling confidence | 90% or greater | 50% or greater | 10% or greater | Insignificant |
Examiner Tip
Be sure that you are able to contrast the different types of resources as classified here. Practise 4 mark questions by picking two different types of resource (e.g. stock and flow or inferred and measured) and make four statements about how they are different.
Natural Resource Development
Natural resource development over time
Over time resources go through several stages of development, from being located to being exhausted
Examiner Tip
You may be asked to assess how resources develop over time. Change over time is a key concept in A level Geography and so it is important to recognise how resource use is another such process that is dynamic and changing. It also varies across space. For example, in some fast industrialising countries the stages of the lifecycle will be happening more quickly than in countries at the lowest end of the development spectrum.
Resource Frontier
Concept of the resource frontier
A resource frontier refers to an area on the periphery of a country or territory which is being opened for resource extraction for the first time
Resource frontiers are often:
Natural environments with little or no human development
Remote with limited infrastructure
Harsh environments may pose technological challenges to extracting natural resources
The Arctic is an example of a resource frontier:
Climate change has opened up new shipping routes to the far north
The region has estimated or inferred stock of more than 400 billion barrels of oil
Potentially the largest stock of oil outside the Middle East
Other resources in the region include fisheries, forestry, mining and tourism
But several challenges remain before any of the resources can be exploited and developed
These make the Arctic a frontier environment:
The region is environmentally sensitive to damage
Fragile ecosystems
Short growing season
Oil spills would be very difficult to clean up due to ice cover
A lack of infrastructure - meaning transport, accident management and search and rescue is expensive
Frequent storms and extreme cold - make working conditions difficult
Icing during winter - puts infrastructure at risk of damage
Warming temperatures - could increase the number of icebergs through the calving of glaciers, making shipping lanes perilous
GPS communication systems - work less well north of 70° latitude
Examiner Tip
Using examples, such as the Arctic in this section, is a great way of showing your extended knowledge and understanding of places, concepts and processes. This will score you marks for Assessment Objective 1 (AO1). By applying an example accurately to a question, you will also be scoring marks for AO2.
Resource Peak
Concept of resource peak
A resource peak refers to the phase of maximum production of a resource before depletion exceeds discoveries
The idea developed from the concept of ‘peak oil’ suggested by Shell geophysicist M. K. Hubbard in 1956
It has since been applied to other stock energy resources and minerals
There are a number of challenges when evaluating the concept of resource peaks:
Perspectives on when certain resources ‘peak’ vary as new technologies are developed or new reserves found
Prices of resources such as oil can be volatile and so the economic viability of extraction will vary over time
It can also be difficult to predict future levels of demand
Some argue that global ‘peak oil’ has already been reached as the rate of new discoveries of oil reserves is falling
Others suggest that we are some way away from this
New technologies are being used to extract more oil from current reserves and for discovering new sources of oil, for example:
Enhanced oil recovery of residual oil from depleted existing oilfields
Deepwater drilling of oil further offshore
Discovery of ‘unconventional’ oil sources, such as tar sands and shale oils
Examiner Tip
Learn these factors so that you are able to explain why it can be very difficult to calculate or predict when a resource will peak, using oil as an example. This will help you if the exam question asks for an ‘assessment’ of the concept.
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